The key appeal of DS platformer Scribblenauts lies in your ability to conjure around 10,000 items to aid you in your quest. But how did the developers come up with so many of the things?

After all, you try and think of items you can use in a game. Off the top of your head, you could maybe come up with, what, 50? 150? 1500? That's a long way from 10,000. Creative director Jeremiah Slaczka, from developers 5th Cell, says that five "lucky" staffers got to spend six whole months doing nothing but reading...stuff.

We've actually had five people and all they did is they went through dictionaries and Wikipedia and encyclopedias and anything you can think of for six months, that's all they did every day during the week.